Roll 'Bama Roll

Bama PG signee Releford leads team to state title

2010-03-15T22:39:11Z

Bama PG signee Releford leads team to state title

Some great news here from our point guard signee Trevor Releford out of Kansas. I strongly encourage everyone to read the article above about just how high his coach is on him and how key he was in leading his team to the state championship. We'll have tons of info and possibly even some video and interviews from Bama's two basketball signees for next season in the coming weeks. We'll also update you on some Bama targets for the late signing period, which begins after the national champion is crowned in April.

Vote For Kiffin!

2010-03-15T19:15:48Z

Vote For Kiffin!

Vote for Lane Kiffin in Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive contest. Yes, it's juvenile. No, I don't care. (HT: Her Loyal Sons)

In the rubber game between the two highly ranked Southeastern Conference programs, the University...

2010-03-15T17:48:49Z

In the rubber game between the two highly ranked Southeastern Conference programs, the University of Alabama softball team banged out 14 hits and drilled four home runs to rout Georgia, 13-4, Sunday afternoon at the UGA Softball Stadium. With the win the Crimson Tide improves to 17-6 overall and 2-1 in SEC play.

Tide powers past No. 4 Georgia | Tidesports.com

Real life has sidelined Wes, but a quick update on the Softball team is in order after taking two of three from #4 Georgia in Athens.

Sign 37 of Saban Left town... RT @scott_cody: Used two be SRO at LSU pro day. I can stand anywhere...

2010-03-15T17:42:29Z

Sign 37 of Saban Left town... RT @scott_cody: Used two be SRO at LSU pro day. I can stand anywhere I want today. Scouts few & far between

Jim Dunaway/Twitter

tee hee....

The Crimson and White Roundtable: Spring Practice is Finally Here Edition

2010-03-15T01:30:16Z

More photos » Dave Martin - AP

Finding that extra scoring threat would be nice...

Browse more photos »

I got to come up with the questions this week but have been holding off on posting them with all the basketball hoopla on Friday, but with Alabama's basketball season officially over we can get back to focusing on football.

1. Spring practice starts today (ed. - well, Friday...) and there will be a number of position battles on both sides of the ball. Which one are you paying the most attention to?

Everyone seems to be fretting about the losses on defense and even though I'm concerned about replacing so many starters as well, I've already broken down my reasoning for feeling strangely comfortable with the new faces. Instead, I'm more concerned with who is going to ~~feel~~ fill Javier Arenas' shoes on special teams. Even though he only managed one kick return for a TD last season (and against UT-Chattanooga at that), time and again he was giving the offense spectacular field position and considering the struggles the offense hit during the middle of the season his ability to flip the field all on his lonesome was more important than many observers may have realized. Even though the offense has all the ingredients to be exceptionally potent this year, having someone who is just as big of a threat as Javy adds a whole new level of problems for opposing coaches preparing for the Tide.

2. There have already been a couple of position change rumors (Kendall Kelly to safety, Michael Bowman to TE) and, knowing Saban's penchant for playing mad scientist with the roster during the early part of spring camp, there are likely going to be a few more over the next few weeks. Who do you think would be a candidate for a position change, why, and where are they moving?

I may have waited a little late for this one since there have already been several position changes and departures that have taken away a little of my speculative thunder, but one guy who could see some more flip flopping is Brian Motley. Saban flipped him to NT from C where he was buried on the depth chart in his first season, the flopped him back to the offensive line where he actually did pretty well filling in at LG during the spring, but he's yet to get any real playing time on offense. If the NT rotation looks like it's coming up short I wouldn't be shocked to see him back over there. Also, William Ming is listed as defensive lineman on the official roster, but Saban explicitly mentioned him as someone who could contribute at Jack linebacker after he signed last year so unless he's just gotten too big to "stand up" I wouldn't be surprised to see him with the LBs either.

3. Each year someone has a come from nowhere breakout performance in the spring, a la Robby Green's surprise nabbing of the FS spot last spring. Who is poised to be a breakout star this year?

He may not be a complete "out of nowhere" choice, but Michael Williams did a great job at TE last season in Colin Peek's shadow and even though he isn't on the same level of pass catching threat as Peek, he's a solid blocker with decent hands which is more than we can say about anyone else (that we know of) at TE right now. Also, if Phelon Jones isn't able to get playing time at CB I will be shocked. Everyone seems to be forgetting about him after he had to sit a year, but he has game experience and a year in Saban's system under his belt so if he can't catch some eyes in the spring I don't know if he ever will.

4. There was a lot of blue chip talent riding the pine last season. Which heralded recruit that has yet to see any meaningful playing time is, in your opinion, both poised to show their stuff and the one you are most excited about finally seeing on the field?

I think Rod Woodson has a golden opportunity with the competition at safety. He was a force on special teams last year and if he's picked up the defense enough he's such a disturbing blend of speed and hard hitting that he should get some playing time this season. And besides, just watch him coming on blitzes in his highlight video and then think about Rashad Johnson creeping up to the line and then try to tell me you don't get a very welcome sense of deja vu.

5. If Mark Ingram and Godzilla fought, who would win?

3SIB already one this one with their photoshoppery, so I'm not even going to try...

Friday... spring practice. QBs 3:20

2010-03-14T23:31:53Z

Friday... spring practice. QBs 3:20

NIT Selection Show: 8pm on ESPNU

2010-03-14T22:43:42Z

NIT Selection Show: 8pm on ESPNU

The NCAA field is set. One SEC bubble team--the Florida Gators--will be dancing, while the other two--the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Ole Miss Rebels--will instead play in the NIT. Bama's hopes are slim, but it's worth tuning in nevertheless.

Selection Sunday special: NIT invite unlikely, but possible

2010-03-14T12:15:09Z

More photos » Dave Martin - AP

Will Senario Hillman and the Tide live to play in the NIT, or is it time to hit the recruiting trails early?

Browse more photos »

Now that this week's conference tournament results are in, it has become evident that the Crimson Tide basketball team's chances for an NIT invite are still alive, but not all that strong. In what follows, I'll break down the situation from top to bottom to show you where we stand heading into Selection Sunday.

For those who don't want to take the time to go through the whole break-down, the Tide will need a little bit of luck as the selection committee makes their decisions. If it were like the old days and the NIT was simply the top 32 major-conference teams not in the Big Dance, we would be a shoo-in. Even if it was simply the best 32 teams, I would feel pretty good about us getting an invite. But alas, that's not the case. As of 2006, the NIT also reserves spots for automatic qualifiers, and there were 8 of them this year. So we are actually trying to be one of the top 24 teams left out of the Big Dance, and not only are we competing against the name schools who didn't get invited like North Carolina and Arizona, but we're also competing against the quality mid-major schools who had great years but didn't quite make the cut for the Big Dance. Keep in mind, there are 343 Division I basketball teams out there, much different than the 120 FBS football teams.

One bit of good news for us, though: The NIT selection committee is chaired by none other than former Bama coach C.M. Newton, who led the Tide to 3 SEC championships and 6 post-season appearances in 12 seasons at the Capstone from 1969-1981. Newton also played a semi-formal consulting role for UA when his old friend Mal Moore began his search for Mark Gottfried's replacement last year. Newton reportedly was very high on hiring Grant and supposedly lobbied to bring him to Tuscaloosa. I doubt this will have any significant impact on our chances, but it's interesting to note nonetheless.

That said, I strongly encourage everyone to read below the jump to see how it all breaks down and where we stand heading into Selection Sunday...

UPDATE: I've included today's results in the tournament break-downs.

First, let's take a look at how the automatic bids were assigned for both the NCAA and NIT tournaments. Each of the 31 Division I basketball conferences is listed in the table below in order of the conferences' rank in the RPI. Each of the 31 conference tournament winners is guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament. Those tournament winners that are projected to be top-11 seeds--in other words, those who would have been chosen as at-large teams even without winning their tournaments--I have categorized as "NCAA at-large" under the column "Winner Status" to distinguish between those teams who got in solely by winning their conference tournaments and those who did not. For those tournament winners projected as 12-seeds and lower, I have categorized "NCAA automatic" under the column "Winner Status". You will see that 19 of the conference tournament winners are projected as seeds such that they got in only as automatic bids, while the other 12 tournament winners (including the four crowned today) would have gotten in without the automatic bid.

Meanwhile, there were also 31 regular season conference champions. 17 of those champions went on to win their conference tournaments, guaranteeing them a spot in the NCAA tournament. Of the remaining 14 champions, 6 lost in their conference tournament but are expected to qualify as at-large teams. That leaves 8 conference champions who lost in their conference tournaments and will not qualify for the NCAA tournament as at-large teams. Those 8 will receive automatic bids to the NIT.

Conference	Champion	Champ Status	Tournament Winner	Winner Status
Big XII	Kansas	---->	Kansas	NCAA at-large
Big East	Syracuse	NCAA at-large	West Virginia	NCAA at-large
ACC	Duke	---->	Duke	NCAA at-large
SEC	Kentucky	---->	Kentucky	NCAA at-large
Big Ten	Ohio State	---->	Ohio State	NCAA at-large
A-10	Temple	---->	Temple	NCAA at-large
MWC	New Mexico	NCAA at-large	San Diego State	NCAA at-large
Pac-10	Cal	NCAA at-large	Washington	NCAA at-large
MVC	Northern Iowa	---->	Northern Iowa	NCAA at-large
WAC	Utah State	NCAA at-large	New Mexico State	NCAA automatic
C-USA	UTEP	NCAA at-large	Houston	NCAA automatic
CAC	Old Dominion	---->	Old Dominion	NCAA at-large
WCC	Gonzaga	NCAA at-large	Saint Mary's	NCAA at-large
Horizon	Butler	---->	Butler	NCAA at-large
MAAC	Siena	---->	Siena	NCAA at-large
MAC	Kent State	NIT automatic	Ohio	NCAA automatic
Southern	Wofford	---->	Wofford	NCAA automatic
Big Sky	Weber State	NIT automatic	Montana	NCAA automatic
Big West	UCSB	---->	UCSB	NCAA automatic
OVC	Murray State	---->	Murray State	NCAA automatic
SBC	Troy	NIT automatic	North Texas	NCAA automatic
Ivy	Cornell	---->	Cornell	NCAA at-large
Summit	Oakland	---->	Oakland	NCAA automatic
AEC	Stony Brook	NIT automatic	Vermont	NCAA automatic
ASC	Jacksonville	NIT automatic	East Tennessee State	NCAA automatic
Southland	Sam Houston State	---->	Sam Houston Sate	NCAA automatic
Big South	Coastal Carolina	NIT automatic	Winthrop	NCAA automatic
Patriot	Lehigh	---->	Lehigh	NCAA automatic
NEC	Quinnipiac	NIT automatic	Robert Morris	NCAA automatic
MEAC	Morgan State	---->	Morgan State	NCAA automatic
SWAC	Jackson State	NIT automatic	Arkansas-Pine Bluff	NCAA automatic
		8 NIT auto bids		17 NCAA auto bids

Since 17 (technically 31, but 14 of those would have qualified as at-large teams anyway) of the 65 NCAA bids will go to automatic qualifiers, there will be 48 spots open for the top 48 teams in the country, as determined by the NCAA selection committee.

According to ESPN's bracket experts, the following 42 teams are considered locks to be among those 46 top teams (in order of expected seeding):

Kansas
Kentucky
Syracuse
Duke
West Virginia
Kansas State
Ohio State
Georgetown
Baylor
Villanova
Pittsburgh
Wisconsin
New Mexico
Purdue
Temple
Tennessee
Michigan State
Vanderbilt
Butler
BYU
Maryland
Texas A&M
Richmond
Xavier
Gonzaga
Cal
Northern Iowa
UNLV
Texas
Oklahoma State
Notre Dame
San Diego State

Marquette
UTEP
Florida State
Clemson
Louisville
Siena
Missouri
Georgia Tech
Old Dominion
Saint Mary's
Cornell
Washington

According to ESPN's bracket experts, the following 9 teams are "on the bubble" for contention for those final 4 NCAA at-large spots. The 5 teams from this group that are not chosen for the NCAA tournament are considered locks for the top 5 at-large spots in the NIT. (Listed in order of chances by ESPN)

Utah State
Wake Forest
Virginia Tech
Minnesota
Mississippi State
Illinois
Florida
Ole Miss
Seton Hall

Since 8 of the 32 NIT bids will go to automatic qualifiers, the NIT selection committee will choose the top 24 remaining teams in the country for at-large spots in the NIT. The five teams from the above group on the NCAA bubble who are not chosen by the NCAA committee will be locks for at-large spots in the NIT, so that will leave 19 spots. In addition to those teams, the following 13 teams are considered NIT locks by the websites Bracket Project and NIT-ology--pretty much the only two sites out there that track NIT projections. (Listed roughly in order of projected seeding)

Memphis
Arizona State
USF
UAB
Cincinnati
Dayton
Wichita State
UConn
Saint John's
William & Mary
Saint Louis
VCU
Tulsa

That leaves only 6 spots left for at-large teams in the NIT. Since the major sites like ESPN don't track the NIT and there isn't much media scrutiny on the NIT selection process, it's hard to say how the pecking order will go for the final teams chosen. Below I will mention 17 teams that the two NIT websites mention as possibilities for those final 6 spots. (Listed loosely in order of chances for being chosen)

Marshall
Nevada
Texas Tech
Northeastern
Illinois State
Arizona
NC State
North Carolina
Charlotte
Louisiana Tech
Wright State
Alabama
Portland
Fairfield
Iona
Missouri State
Miami

So there you have it. Alabama is one of about 17 or so teams fighting for the final half-dozen or so NIT at-large berths. We could very well be one of the teams who gets an invite, but simple probability states that there probably just aren't quite enough spots. Bottom line, if I had to bet one way or another, I'd bet against us getting an invite, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if we did, as we should at least be in the discussion at the NIT committee meeting.

One final note, it is in fact within the realm of possibility that should Alabama be chosen, we very well could be matched against UAB in the opening round. If the Tide does get in, it will most likely be as a #6 or #7 seed, meaning a matchup with a #3 or #2 seed. UAB will most likely be either a #2 or #3 seed. Even if we do get in and the seeds do line up that way, there is still only a one in four chance that we would even be in the same bracket as UAB. Just something to think about if we do get invited.

I'm certainly hoping for the best, as it would be great to give Torrance and Brock another run-out or two and give our returning players some valuable added practice time and post-season experience. If we are left out, as I'm afraid we will be, it will only give Grant and company extra time to hit those recruiting trails.

One way or another, the Process continues. Roll Tide.

How many LSU scrimms does Les Miles have to watch to understand he should trust his Big10 roots...

2010-03-14T19:10:00Z

How many LSU scrimms does Les Miles have to watch to understand he should trust his Big10 roots instead of Gary Crowton http://bit.ly/cWcTPi

Twitter / Jim Dunaway

If Les Miles ever figured that out we'd all be in trouble...

I decided late last night my recruitment was over. I was going to wait awhile, but I started...

2010-03-14T17:33:33Z

I decided late last night my recruitment was over. I was going to wait awhile, but I started thinking about it and it made no sense to keep it going. I wanted to play for Alabama all of my life, and I couldn't be happier with my decision.

Just being on campus yesterday made me feel like I was home. My whole family just about is Alabama fans and they have all wanted me to play in Tuscaloosa like my dad since I was a little kid. This made more sense than anything I could have ever done in my entire life

Gentry Estes: LeFlore's Danny Woodson Jr. commits to Alabama

The Crimson Tide's Fastest Man

2010-03-14T15:11:12Z

Kirani James, running for his home country of Grenada, races in the 200 meters final at the 6th IAAF World Youth Championships in Italy, July 2009. He finished with a career best 21.05.

When it comes to raw speed few can compare to Alabama's 17-year-old true freshman, Kirani James. On Saturday, the Gouyave, Grenada native earned All-American honors at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark.

James entered the meet ranked second in the world in the 400 meter sprint this year and lived up to the billing. He ran a 45.63 in the final netting him second place in a field that featured the top-five fastest 400m sprinters in the world this year. Georgia sophomore Torrin Lawrence won the race by four tenths of a second.

Last week James was named the SEC Men's Freshman Runner of the Year, as voted on by the league head coaches. At the SEC Indoor Championships in February he finished second in the 400m with a career-best 45.24 - the fifth-fastest time in collegiate indoor history.

Florida won the indoor national title and Alabama finished 26th. The spring outdoor campaign begins on March 25 with the four-day Alabama Relays in Tuscaloosa.

Two of the top prospects in the state of Alabama have been named to the 2011 Under Armour...

2010-03-14T07:09:50Z

Two of the top prospects in the state of Alabama have been named to the 2011 Under Armour All-America Game.

Wide receiver Marvin Shinn (Prichard, Ala./Vigor) was named to the roster last week. The 6-foot-3, 180-pound ESPNU 150 Watch List prospect is an Alabama commit.

JC Shurburtt: Two more named to UA game

You know, Trent Richardson is just ungodly big. Ingram is really a power guy in his own right, and...

2010-03-14T07:05:29Z

You know, Trent Richardson is just ungodly big. Ingram is really a power guy in his own right, and Richardson makes him look a tad small.

I like it!

2010-03-14T02:49:58Z

I like it!

Danny Woodson Jr. Commits

2010-03-13T21:38:38Z

In some breaking recruiting news, Danny Woodson Jr. has committed to Alabama. Woodson is a 6'2, 200 pound wide receiver prospect out of Le Flore High School in Mobile, Alabama, and he committed to the Tide over offers from other from several other schools, including Auburn.

Speaking of Auburn, the Tigers offered Woodson before Alabama did, and in fact Woodson named Auburn his leader even as of last week. Nevertheless, though, Woodson took a visit to Alabama this weekend and committed to Nick Saban and company after we extended an offer and made him a recruiting priority.

And if the name Danny Woodson rings a bell to you, it should. Danny Woodson Jr. is the son of Danny Woodson, the highly-touted quarterback who signed with Alabama in the late 1980's, and who was the quarterback at the Capstone before Jay Barker took over in 1991. Woodson was a very talented player back then that was held back by off-field issues and a poor scheme fit, but no one ever doubted his raw ability, and largely the same thing goes with his son. Football runs in the blood of the Woodson family, as Woodson's uncle, Lamarr Woodson, was a tight end at Auburn, and while some thought that may help steer Woodson Jr. to the Plains, obviously that has not turned out to be the case.

Woodson Jr. became a big name on the recruiting trails last year after having a stellar junior campaign at Le Flore, where he racked up 57 receptions for 1,463 yards and 25 touchdowns.

With the addition of Woodson Jr. to the recruiting mix, I would imagine that Alabama is probably about done at wide receiver. While the Tide may sign one more receiver in the 2010 class, it looks to be a small class overall and given how much we've racked up on receivers the past couple of years, I really do not see us having room for more than one more receiver. Furthermore, with us already having two highly-touted wide receivers on board in Shinn and Woodson Jr., that further alleviates the need for more wide receivers.

Woodson Jr. becomes the fifth commitment of the 2011 recruiting class.

Spring Practice News and Notes

2010-03-13T20:23:53Z

On-field preparations for the 2010 season kicked off yesterday afternoon in Tuscaloosa with the beginning of spring practice. Though it was a mere preview of things to come -- due to spring break, Alabama won't return to the practice fields until March 22nd -- there was plenty of news to be found yesterday. Let's take a quick recap and discuss what much of it could mean.

To begin with, there was some news of roster attrition yesterday, as it was announced that neither tailback Terry Grant or Travis Sikes would return for their senior season in 2010.

Tailback Terry Grant and wide receiver Travis Sikes have chosen to forego their final years of eligibility and will not return to the Crimson Tide in 2010. Each had already obtained undergraduate degrees.

The loss of Sikes is a complete non-issue. Hey was a greyshirt signee from several years back under Mike Shula, and never made any impact whatsoever. He never caught a single pass in his career, nor did he ever play a meaningful snap. The height of his career was playing special teams in a few games in 2007, but he redshirted in 2006 and did not play in a single game in 2008. This past year in the Crimson Tide's national championship run, the only playing time he saw was some mop-up duty against Chattanooga. He was a good kid and it is certainly good to see him get his degree -- both for him personally and for us (APR purposes) -- but he was just never a meaningful contributor in any real sense, and frankly I'm not even sure that he was still on scholarship towards the end.

With Terry Grant, however, it was a different story. He was the highly-touted tailback signee in 2006 out of Lumberton, Mississippi -- though in hindsight, it was clear that Rivals dramatically overrated him -- and at one time he seemed to have a relatively bright career in front of him. Of course, though, that was before surgeries for a sports hernia, and it was also before the arrival and emergence of players like Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson, Glen Coffee, Eddie Lacy, and Jeramie Griffin. You hate to see it for the young man, but as I mentioned yesterday, it is simply the harsh reality for some by having a roster so loaded with talent and depth.

Interestingly enough, though, it seems that Grant didn't necessarily just give up football, but instead is probably looking to go out the way of the medical scholarship:

"He's been injured two years in a row," Alabama coach Nick Saban said of Grant, who had two surgeries for a sports hernia.

"He decided because of injuries -- he's already graduated -- that he would not come back for his fifth year. He does qualify for a medical, if we need to do that, so he can continue academically. ..."

That obviously doesn't make a difference for his football career moving forward, but it is a nice move by our athletic department. Grant already has his degree so we could have easily decided to just pinch pennies with the purse and send him along his way, but by giving him the option of going on a medical scholarship, it effectively means that Grant can opt to spend another year at the Capstone pursuing either another bachelor's degree or entering graduate school, all the while not having to pay a dime and having the athletic department foot the bill. A lot of programs wouldn't do that, and I'm glad to see that we decided to reward Grant accordingly.

Meanwhile, in other news, safety Robby Green was not at practice yesterday, but it wasn't quite what you may think:

Green was "excused today for personal reasons," Alabama coach Nick Saban said after the practice.

But when the Tide comes back from spring break for its second practice on March 22, "he will be back," Saban said, "and he will be able to practice."

When asked today about the due process, Saban said Green has "not been through that." But Saban said Green has been cleared to practice.

"I'll let you know when I get more information," Saban said. "I don't have any new information."

Contrary to most earlier reports, Saban explicitly said yesterday afternoon that Green would be allowed to practice this Spring. This is all speculation on my part, once again, but it certainly seems like from everything that we have heard to date on Green, this indeed is an issue involving a positive test for some sort of a banned supplement. I may be wrong on that, but everything I've read to date seemingly points in that direction.

William Vlachos was confirmed to have had offseason foot surgery yesterday, and he spent the afternoon in a black no-contact jersey and riding a stationary bike. That in and of itself was no grand secret, but it is somewhat news from Gentry Estes that apparently Vlachos probably won't practice at all this spring:

Bad news on the injury front: Starting center William Vlachos had offseason foot surgery and probably will not practice this spring.

All in all, it would probably be a pretty good decision to just have Vlachos take the spring off. A broken foot can easily become a lingering injury, so giving him the time off would probably be the safest course of action. Besides, Vlachos is an experienced guy and a proven commodity at this point, so the lack of reps won't likely hurt him. Furthermore, given how limited Vlachos looked down the stretch last year in terms of mobility, I would probably venture to say that his foot injury was at least relatively serious. I hope we give him the entire spring off.

In Vlachos' absence, it will be interesting to see the rotation at center. We generally know that Alfred McCullough was the top back-up at the tackle positions last year, but aside from that -- thanks, fortunately, to good injury luck up front -- we never really had the need to play the back-up linemen during meaninful situations, so we really do not have much of an idea as to the pecking order on the offensive line, particularly on the interior of the offensive line. At least now, with the graduation of Mike Johnson and the foot injury to Vlachos, we'll start to get a good idea of how things are shaking out in terms of depth on the interior offensive line.

Kendall Kelly was indeed at safety yesterday afternoon, as expected:

Kendall Kelly is a defensive back.

Kelly, a former Gadsden City High School standout, was redshirted last fall as a freshman wide receiver. He has been moved to the secondary, where the Crimson Tide must replace three of four starters, plus nickel backs and backups.

Admittedly, I'm still a tad bit skeptical over this one. I don't suppose that I would be overwhelmingly shocked if Kelly ended up staying at safety, but I still somewhat expect that he will be moved back to wide receiver at some point. The guy has just been so banged up for so long, I still get the feeling that this is a Demetrius Goode type situation. Admittedly, though, others like Chase Goodbread feel differently:

The Kendall Kelly-to-safety experiment we reported on was on full display. Depth is needed there in a major way, so that comes as no surprise. Kelly is an athlete with more size than people realize. Although he may not be quite as chiseled as Mark Barron, he’s every bit as big. Look for that move to stick.

I'll be brutally honest on this one... as long as Kelly makes a big impact and lives up to his physical potential, I really couldn't care less whether or not he does it at wide receiver or safety. Kelly at safety isn't what any of us expected when he signed in 2009, of course, but if he can be even in the same ballpark as Mark Barron, I can guarantee you that you won't hear the slightest complaint from anyone.

Brandon Gibson was also moved to defensive back yesterday:

Saban added that former UMS-Wright standout Brandon Gibson will also practice some at defensive back in addition to his usual wide receiver spot.

"We're kind of playing him both ways out there," Saban said.

Unlike Kelly, the move of Gibson was a bit more of a surprise, but it's easy to see why we are trying it. He was a pretty highly-touted recruit coming out of high school -- the consensus had him as a low four-star recruit -- but he hasn't been able to make in impact in Tuscaloosa yet as a wide receiver. He redshirted in 2007, didn't catch a single pass as a redshirt freshman in 2008, and only caught two passes last year (against FIU and Chattanooga).

The harsh reality for Gibson is that he was buried on the depth chart at receiver, and that was before the arrival of 2010 signees like DeAndrew White, Corey Grant, Blake Sims, Ronald Carswell, and Keiwone Malone. Being brutally honest, Gibson was simply unlikely to ever see any meaningful time at wide receiver, and with him only having two years of eligibility left, this is probably a now-or-never move for Gibson. If he cannot find a way to get on the field in a meaningful way at defensive back, he'll probably be a career back-up who never makes an impact.

Jalson Fowler, interesting enough, started his career in Tuscaloosa yesterday afternoon at inside linebacker:

Jalston Fowler is an inside linebacker.

Fowler was signed in February as a running back from Vigor High School, but the 6-foot, 245-pound prospect worked today on defense. Perhaps a full-house offensive backfield led by Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and super sophomore-to-be Trent Richardson is the reason. Of maybe the reason is that the Tide needs depth at inside linebacker.

As Don Kausler hinted at in his blurb, I think this move is likely both an issue of depth at tailback and the relative lack of depth at inside linebacker. At the very least, the tailback situation is a bit self-explanatory. Heisman Trophy Mark Ingram is returning, as is Trent Richardson (who may be even better than Ingram), and everything we've heard of Eddie Lacy indicates that he will be every bit as good as the recruiting hype indicated. Furthermore, with the return of Jeramie Griffin to full health, we already have a player at tailback who largely fills the role that a guy like Fowler would play.

Linebacker perhaps requires a bit more explanation, but even so the point remains valid. With the early departure of Rolando McClain, depth on the inside isn't necessarily what you may think. Depending on how Dont'a Hightower's knee injury affects his mobility, he could very well be headed to Jack linebacker, and if that indeed comes to fruition, the rotation at inside linebacker will have Nico Johnson, Tana Patrick, Chris Jordan, and Petey Smith. Three of those four will be freshmen or sophomores in 2010, and the only upperclassman in the group is Chris Jordan (who has yet to start). It's not necessarily that we are thin at inside linebacker, mind you, but we are perhaps not as deep as you would initially imagine, and Fowler probably has a shorter path to meaningful playing time at inside linebacker than he does at tailback. I do think Fowler could be a fine ball carrier on the offensive side, but I tend to think of this more as a situation of simply trying to do move people around to get your most talented players on the field as soon as possible.

Speaking of Dont'a Hightower, Saban was somewhat surprisingly a bit bullish on his status yesterday afternoon:

So much for that talk about linebacker Dont'a Hightower being held out of contact until August as he recovers from a serious knee injury.

"I never said that," Alabama coach Nick Saban said today after the Crimson Tide's first spring football practice.

"He'll practice every day like everybody else. ... I think he could play in a game right now."

Saban said a determination will be made before each scrimmage if Hightower is good to go.

For what it's worth, Hightower was not in a no-contact jersey yesterday, and he looked pretty good. On the other hand, though, he was sporting a pretty bulky brace on that rebuilt left knee. It seems like Hightower may be a bit more available for contact than most imagined prior to yesterday, but even so I imagine that Saban and company will still take things a bit slow with him. Unless they receive absolutely glowing medical reports from the training staff, I imagine we will still see him largely held out of contact work. Admittedly, though, if we could safely do it, having Hightower participate in the contact work could do wonders both for his confidence and our overall defense making the transition into 2010.

As I mentioned earlier about Fowler, I still tend to think that the question remains as to exactly where Hightower will play in 2010. Ideally he would stay inside and hold down one of those spots alongside Nico Johnson, while both Courtney Upshaw and Ed Stinson have standout campaigns at Jack linebacker, but of course none of that is a given. Necessity could force Hightower outside to Jack, so it's at least something to keep our eyes on.

In any event, though, don't let any of this overly distract you from what should be the key news in all of this... Dont'a Hightower is surprisingly healthy a mere seven months after destroying his left knee, and at the very least it seems that the odds of him being 100% when Penn State comes to town seems very, very good. Don't let all of the other discussion distract you, this is what you should really be focusing on.

Undra Billingsley is making another move, this time from tight end back to defensive end. This comes a year after he made the move from defensive end to tight end. I hope that Billingsley can made an impact at defensive end, but being brutally honest I tend to agree with Chase Goodbread:

The opinion here is that it’s not a good sign that Undra Billingsley was back with the defensive linemen Friday. Billingsley spent his redshirt season at defensive end before moving to tight end last year. Switches sometimes work. Switchbacks rarely do.

The good news for Billingsley is that he still has three years of eligibility remaining, so he has plenty of time to right the ship. Admittedly, though, things don't seem to be going very well for him at the moment. He needs to get it together soon if he wants to make an impact.

Remember the Michael Bowman to tight end talk? Perhaps we should move that more towards the unsubstantiated rumor pile. Bowman was limited yesterday with an abdominal pull, so it was hard to tell either way exactly where he was going to end up. Nevertheless, Chase Goodbread shot down the claim that Bowman had bulked up to 245 pounds:

But the talk that he’s bulked up to 245-250 pounds, just on the eye test, looks bogus. He’s a big guy, to be sure. But he’s not that big.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that in Saban's press conference yesterday afternoon, he made no mention whatsoever of Bowman being one of the position change experiments this spring. Admittedly it's still probably a bit too early to tell, but for now I imagine that you have to think that Bowman will stick at wide receiver (especially with Kelly and Gibson getting looks at defensive back).

More bad news for Earl Alexander, with this partial quote coming from the Nicktator himself:

Wide receiver Earl Alexander will be "limited for a while," with a stress fracture, according to Saban.

That is bad news on a couple of fronts for Alexander. First and foremost, stress fractures tend to be lingering injuries and the only thing that can really be done is more rest. Furthermore, injuries continue to limit Alexander's development overall, as if you will remember correctly he was limited in spring practice a year ago while recovering from the shoulder injury he sustained against LSU in 2008. With Alexander being a fifth-year senior and already being buried on the depth chart, I'm afraid this is very bad news for the young man from Phenix City. Hopefully he can get healthy and finally put it all together, but I'm afraid for right now it seems like he will never be able to live up to his recruiting hype.

Another position change also came for redshirt freshman Mike Marrow:

Mike Marrow working with the tight ends was an interesting move Friday that wasn’t mentioned by Saban post-practice. The power running back could provide some depth vacated by Billingsley’s move to defense.

Color me completely unsurprised by this one. He spent last year at tailback, I think, largely because of the early season-ending injury to Jeramie Griffin, but with Griffin and Fowler around -- not to mention Ingram, Richardson, Lacy, etc. -- I never saw him as having a future there. To me, in order for him to get on the field, he was always going to have to move to either H-back or tight end, or move to linebacker. I'm not surprised by this one, but I am looking to see what Marrow can do at his new position. He arrived in Tuscaloosa a year ago as an extremely impressive physical specimen, so he is clearly physically ready at this point. Furthermore, we need another solid blocker up front at the H-back position, so playing time is there for Marrow to earn.

Some good news from Chase Goodbread on greyshirt signee Petey Smith:

Grayshirt enrollee Petey Smith didn’t spend the fall sitting on the couch and eating King Dons, that I can promise. The short, stumpy inside linebacker types often carry something of a belly (remember this guy?) but Smith looked to be in excellent shape Friday.

It sounds to me like he has done everything we wanted him to do. Given he has already greyshirted, I figure there is a good chance that you see him play some -- even if on special teams -- in 2010.

Finally, Chase Goodbread also gives us the heads-up on the numbers assigned to some of the early-enrollees:

John Fulton – #10

DeMarcus Milliner – #28

Chad Lindsey – #78

Jalston Fowler – #45

Brandon Lewis – #95

Phillip Sims – #14

Petey Smith – #38

Anthony Orr – #60

All in all, it's good stuff. DeMarcus Milliner gets the old number of Javier Arenas, while Brandon Lewis gets Brandon Deaderick's old number. Phillip Sims takes a traditional Alabama quarterback number, while Chad Lindsey looks to continue the tradition of road-grader offensive linemen sporting the #78 in crimson. John Fulton wearing #10 isn't a great surprise, either, as I recall that he wore that number in high school.

One final note here... there was absolutely no news yesterday on greyshirt signee Darius McKellar. He signed originally in the 2009 class, then greyshirted, and a few months ago there was talk that he may delay his enrollment even further after undergoing wrist surgery. At this point, I'm not even sure if he is on campus. I was expecting to hear something about him one way or the other yesterday, but there was no news.

Finally, to close, as I mentioned earlier the Tide will not take the practice field again for another nine days, so expect there to be a pretty big lull in terms of football news in the coming days. Nevertheless, once things start again on March 22nd, we'll keep you up-to-date on all of the developments here at RBR.

SEC Basketball Tournament: Day Three Open Thread

2010-03-13T17:40:46Z

The Tide is out, but there's still more hot SEC Basketball action to be had, starting with Kentucky vs Tennessee (Go 'Cats) at Noon and followed by Mississippi State vs Vandy at 2:15(ish). If State can take out Vandy that should get them in the NCAA Tournament and give the Tide a better shot at the NIT, so pinch your nose and root for the Bulldogs. Both games will be televised by ABC (no more SEC Network), and the SEC Tournament hub over at the official site has the listen live/live stats links for those of you stuck somewhere without a TV.

I KNOW I Can Find 100,000 People Who Hate Alabama Crimson Tide

2010-03-13T04:23:27Z

As if this should be difficult...

Commonwealth Stadium | Capacity: 67,606

Vaught-Hemingway Stadium | Capacity: 60,580

Davis Wade Stadium | Capacity: 55,082

Juhrdun Hare Stadium | Capacity: 87,451

Rose Bowl Stadium | Capacity: 92,542

Terry Grant and Travis Sikes won't be back in 2010. Saban also said R.Green's absence Friday was...

2010-03-13T01:08:43Z

Terry Grant and Travis Sikes won't be back in 2010. Saban also said R.Green's absence Friday was excused.

Twitter: Chase Goodbread

A bit of breaking roster news from Chase Goodbread, as it seems that Terry Grant will not return in 2010. The deal with Sikes isn't really a surprise -- some people weren't even aware that he was still on the team, and I'm not sure he was on scholarship -- but Grant could have certainly returned.

Realistically, though, it's hard to blame Grant for moving on. He's a great kid and a very fast one at that, but with the backfield as loaded as it is, there was just no way he was going to get on the field. At most he would have gotten a few token reps like he did last year, largely as a reward for his hard work and good behavior. On a personal level I feel bad for Grant, but I'm afraid that's just the harsh reality for some of the surge in talent we've seen in recent years. By and large you really have to be something special to get on the field in Tuscaloosa these days, and there were just too many talented players standing between Grant and playing time.

via Estes, Kirby Smart has indeed switched to coaching the LBs while new assistant coach Jeremy...

2010-03-12T23:03:57Z

via Estes, Kirby Smart has indeed switched to coaching the LBs while new assistant coach Jeremy Pruitt is working with the DBs. Gut reaction: This is Pruitt's first swing as an on the field coach at the college level, and knowing Saban's hands on approach with the secondary this allows Smart, who needs no learning curve considering his experience with and knowledge of the defense, to handle the LBs while Saban gets to look over Pruitt's shoulder instead of just throwing the new guy to the wolves from day one.

Also, via Chase Goodbread's feed, Mike Marrow is working at TE, Undra Billingsley is back with the DL, and HIghtower, Jeramie Griffin, and Damian Square are out of the black jerseys after knee injuries last year. More good tidbits from him keep coming, so be sure and follow.